Stephen @StephenJBaker takes a look ahead at Cymru’s upcoming campaign.

This year’s Women’s Nations League is due to start this week, and this year there is an extra incentive with the League being combined with the Euro 2025 qualifying campaign. So this time around there will not be the usual qualifying campaign spread over two seasons. Instead the teams will compete in the Nations League as they did last year, but with qualification for the Euros as a reward.

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Because Cymru dropped to League B, the best we can hope for is a Playoff place. Yes, we will (hopefully) have to go through playoffs again in a matter of months! Cymru will get a place in the playoffs by finishing in the top three places in League B4, first or second and Cymru will be seeded in the Playoffs. Being seeded, we will avoid the inform countries.

League B4 contains the following countries

RankingRecent form
Cymru32L L L D W
Ukraine34W W W L W
Croatia59L L W W L 
Kosovo91W W W W W

The league will be over quite quickly compared to the normal qualifying campaigns, starting in April and finishing in July. If you are able to make it to any of the matches below, it’s well worth it and this could also be THE year!

05.04.24 CYMRU v Croatia Stok Cae Ras

09.04.24 Kosovo v CYMRU

31.05.24 CYMRU v Ukraine Parc Y Scarlets

04.06.24 Ukraine v CYMRU

12.07.24 Croatia v CYMRU

16.07.24 CYMRU v Kosovo Parc Y Scarlets

Cymru Women do not have much of a history against these countries. After an extensive internet search I can only find records of three matches against these nations. There maybe other matches but finding stats on our Women’s team is extremely difficult. These trailblazing stats should be available by a quick Google search like with the men’s team, hopefully someone from the FAW will be able to help.

Two of the three matches I was able to find were against Ukraine. Almost ten years ago Cymru played them in a qualifying campaign. Drawing 1-1 on 9th September 2014 and losing 0-1 just over a week later.

One player for Cymru to be aware of is Daryna Apanashchenko. The 37 year old has played for Ukraine 143 times scoring an amazing 64 goals. Ukraine are the closest to Cymru in the rankings and it should be between them and Cymru for 1st place in the League.

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The other match that I was able to find out about was on 11th March 2015 Cymru drew 1-1 with Croatia. During this Nations League, the player Cymru should watch out for is Ivana Rudelic. She should become Croatia’s top scorer, only needing two more goals to make history.

The other team is Kosovo, the lowest ranked team in the league. Having only played international football for seven years – their first match was on St David’s Day 2017 against Poland (losing 5-0) – they are understandably way down in the rankings. Cymru should have no problems against Kosovo. Although they have won their last five games, these were against countries around their rank (91st). They do have a young player to watch out for, Valentina Metaj who is only 19. She has been scoring at the rate of one goal every other game since winning her first cap. Hopefully Cymru will be too much for Kosovo in both matches.

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Fingers crossed Cymru will take 1st or 2nd in this League and get a good draw in the Playoffs, hopefully at home.

Not only is the qualifying new for Cymru, it’s also the start of a new era. With Gemma Grainger surprisingly leaving the Cymru job to manage Norway back in February. The role has now been taken over by Rhian Wilkinson, whose first match in charge will be against Croatia this week. Rhian, a Canadian with a Welsh Mam and English Dad, has been given a contract until 2027.

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The 41 year old played for Canada an astonishing 183 times between 2003 and 2017 including three Olympics, winning Bronze in London 2012 and Rio 2016. After finishing playing Rhian went into coaching, becoming an Assistant Coach for Canada, taking them to the 2019 World Cup, as well has being Head Coach for their Under 17s and Under 20s. She then went on to become an Assistant Coach with England; a tenure which included going to the Olympics for the fifth time with Team GB in Tokyo.

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Not only does Rhian have plenty of international coaching experience, she has also won the NWSL Championship in America, easily the top league in the world, with the Portland Thorns. A great signing by the FAW, someone who has done it at the very top level, with connection to Cymru.

Pob lwc Rhian a Merched Cymru!

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